Roll out a responsible and robust banking offer

The bank deploys a wide range of robust products and services to its clients and in relation to some of its stakeholders, supports people in precarious banking situations, facilitates the access to banking services and helps micro-entrepreneurs by reinforcing its commitments in the field of microfinance.

1. Microfinance

The intervention of Societe Generale takes place across local subsidiaries which bring financing sources to microfinance institutions in their countries.

Lines of funding : the supported MFI enable non-banked populations to have access to credit and irrigate local economies.

Minority holdings in capital: through its subsidiaries, Societe Generale also has shares in the capital of 5 internationally recognised MFI’s via minor but active participations, with a focus on commercial synergies: Advans Cameroun, Advans Ghana, Advans Ivory Coast, AccesBanque Madagascar and ACEP Burkina.

2. A robust offer of products and services

In Morocco, the bank works alongside numerous institutions to fight poverty and social exclusion. Société Générale Maroc and SOS Villages d’Enfants Maroc have signed a partnership agreement which highlights their commitment to schooling and the social integration of youth originating from underprivileged environments or living in precarious ones.

In line with the maps model proposed by France, the subsidiary offers its clientele a subscription to a SOS Villages d’Enfants card, an Electron card at an annual total cost of MAD 130, or EUR 11.5 of which 60 are donated to the association. By the end of 2013, there were 2,000 card owners, with a progressive growth in the number of card holders; 50 children had their schooling expenses taken care of.

3. Financing and Green services

In Senegal, SGBS financed a EUR 3.4 mid-term project, including a green line, with the help of the AFD. Through an industrial process, gross CO2 emission was recuperated to be purified and liquified. The gas obtained was recycled and made fit for a new industrial usage (notably the food industry)

4. Biodiversity

Within the subsidiaries of the Group located abroad, initiatives to raise awareness, to conserve biodiversity and to preserve eco-systems are multiplying. For instance: in Madagascar, BFV-SG employees have committed themselves annually for the past 15 years to reforestation actions

In 2013, they planted 6,000 feet of young plants in the city of Ambohijanaka as part of the programme called “10 million souls, 10 million trees”, which was implemented by the government in Benin. All Societe Generale Benin employees went to the classified forest of Pahou, crucial to the regional eco-system. In total, 841 acacia culiformis plants were planted in an area measuring nearly one hectare.

5. Financial inclusion

In Africa, initiatives are continuing to make progress and are already opening doors to other projects in 2015:

In Senegal, the company in support of social inclusion, Manko, a 100%-owned subsidiary of Societe Generale, has since 2013 been offering a unique range of banking products and services tailored to populations with modest incomes and those that do not as yet have access to the traditional banking system. All these banking products and services are distributed either by mobile telephone (Yoban’tel technology developed by SGBS – Societe Generale de Banques au Sénégal, in 2011), or via the Manko agency. Furthermore financial education courses, given by an association (in touch with Manko) for a nominal fee, have also been put in place to help customers in hardship. Since 2014 Manko has been entering a new phase of development as a result of extending its reach to populations that already have bank accounts but are in the informal sector and/or have low incomes, and as a result of the imminent opening of new branches. It is planned to roll out the concept to other African countries;

In Cameroon the mobile branch concept developed by the subsidiary Societe Generale Cameroon in 2013, bringing the bank to its customers on the road, has covered 390,000 km and has enabled its customers to carry out over 5,000 banking transactions in the course of 2014. This mobile branch, a vehicle with a completely new look and the latest information and communications technologies, contains tools to allow the customer advisor to perform all banking transactions and provide the same services as a traditional branch;

In Chad, Societe Generale Tchad has developed a voice push SMS solution to inform and alert all of its customers, particularly illiterate people (78% of Chad’s population) by sending voice SMS messages instead of written messages. This innovative project, the result of creative workshops within the bank, permits total accessibility to both illiterate customers and to visually impaired customers;

About us

Present in 19 African countries, Societe Generale Group enjoys a unique positioning on the region, allowing it to offer clients the expertise and the know-how of an international bank and the proximity of a local bank. In Africa, the Group accompanies local economies and serves 3.7 million clients, including 150,000 businesses.